| When you are looking for the absolute best way to | | | | and the PC has sufficient disk space, memory, and |
| secure your home and/or business using home | | | | computing horse power, then, yes, by all means it can |
| security cameras, then you have arrived at the right | | | | be the centerpiece of your home security system. |
| place. Increasingly, business and home owners are | | | | A DVR based system |
| beginning to realize that their home or business is | | | | A DVR, or a Digital Video Recorder, is basically a PC, |
| worth more when adequately protected. And home | | | | with a well-chosen operating system and components |
| owners are increasingly taking the matters in their own | | | | that will work well together as a center piece of your |
| hands, helped by the technology advances. In this | | | | home security system. Just attach the cameras, |
| article, we will offer a couple of best possible | | | | cables, and a flat screen monitor, fire up the software, |
| components to build a home or business security | | | | and you are in business, and your home is protected. |
| system with. A system including video camera | | | | At this time this is probably the best option, yet the |
| surveillance software that is robust and failure proof. A | | | | most costly. |
| system that offers the best possible protection. | | | | A NAS based security system |
| We will argue that breaking the system down into | | | | NAS, or Network Attached Storage, is a way for a |
| independent components connected with a IP, internet | | | | home to use the high disk capacity with all the |
| protocol, network is the way to go. In this article, we will | | | | computers on the network, including the security |
| briefly describe three ways of building such | | | | computers and cameras. You can think of NAS as a |
| interconnected home security system. The three ways | | | | dedicated storage computer that is always on, always |
| are: A dedicated PC based system, a NAS based | | | | connected, and always ready to serve data, or |
| system, and a DVR based system. | | | | receive data for storing. With a reliable NAS system in |
| A dedicated PC based system | | | | place, you can even bypass a PC, or a DVR for your |
| Although you could base your home security system | | | | security camera video recording purposes, thus |
| on a home PC, we can only recommend doing so if | | | | eliminating one possible point of failure in the chain. The |
| you have prior computer hardware experience and | | | | way to do it is to acquire a smart network video |
| decide that this will be a dedicated PC system. Why? | | | | security camera with the "on camera" software that |
| There are too many interactions between softwares | | | | can communicate directly with the NAS unit, |
| that reside on a computer these days that it is unclear | | | | completely bypassing the PC or the DVR. Then, the |
| that a multi-user PC can handle the requirement of | | | | PC or the DVR is only used as a means of displaying |
| robustness and sufficient uptime for it to be a reliable | | | | the footage stored on your NAS system, as well as |
| component in the permanent home security system. | | | | possibly interacting with and controlling the camera. |
| As long as you are dedicating a whole PC to the task, | | | | |